Uzbek café fined for barring female customers late in the evening 

An Uzbek court has fined a café in Tashkent for not letting in female customers after 10.30 pm, reports said. 

The owner of Sahil Street Food café pleaded guilty in court on Wednesday, Gazeta.uz website said.  

He said that he had decided to restrict female visitors later in the day because the tables in his café were placed in separate tents, and some male and female customers took advantage of that private setting “to do various indecent things”. 

He added that he regretted his decision and apologised, the report said. 

The owner and one of his employees were fined about 500 dollars each on charges of gender discrimination.  

The complaint against the café was filed by journalist Inobat Akhatova after she and her girlfriends had been barred from entering the café, citing internal rules.  

The report added that Akhatova became a target of “much negativity and hatred” after sharing her experience in a Facebook post. Most men commenting under her post sided with the café owner, and some said that women should stay at home in the evening.  

It was the first gender discrimination court case in Uzbekistan under the newly adopted legal changes that, among other things, toughened punishment for sexism in Uzbekistan. 

The changes, which were part of a move aimed at reinforcing secularism and controlling Islamisation of society, also outlawed polygamy and religious marriages without state registration. 

“I hope this case will serve as a lesson to others and prevent further cases of discrimination on gender grounds,” Akhatova said in a Facebook post.  

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